CHAPTER IX POOLE
The wide expanse of Poole Harbour is a well-known haunt of sportsmen, for in the winter it is the home of innumerable wild-fowl, and for those who are fond of yachting and pottering about with boats it is large enough to test their skill and patience in controlling a craft in the wind and wave. Here we get a double tide, the second rising rather higher than the first, and when the tide is in the view is not unlike a Dutch landscape. But the ebb lays bare acres of mud-banks, which mar the prospect. However, the marine emanations from the mud-banks are said to be very salubrious. This harbour is the only haven between Southampton and Weymouth for yachting men.
Inland from Poole the country is pleasantly varied by hills and heaths, through which, on the west side of the harbour, the verge of Bournemouth is reached, and an hour's walk will take the pilgrim over the Hampshire boundary.
Poole Quay, where we smell the smell of tar, piled-up teak and reeking pine, is an interesting place for lovers of the picturesque. Here we find an old postern gate of Richard III.'s day, and the Town Cellar or Wool House. The last recalls the days when Poole was part of the manor of Canford. The lords of Canford sometimes received toll in kind, and the goods handed over were stored in this "Town Cellar." It is particularly interesting for the way its walls are formed, of flint and large, squared pieces of stone.
The smuggling for which Poole was long notorious is handed down to posterity by the following doggerel:—
"If Poole was a fish-pool, and the men of Poole fish,
There'd be a pool for the devil, and fish for his dish."
One of the most daring and successful of English buccaneers was Harry Page of Poole, or, as he was more commonly called, Arripay. His enterprises were principally directed against the coasts of France and Spain, where he committed such havoc that a formidable expedition was fitted out in those countries to destroy him. It sailed along our southern shores, destroying as opportunity offered, until it reached Poole. Here it landed, and a battle ensued, in which the inhabitants were driven from the town and the brother of Arripay killed.